Krav Maga is the official defensive tactics system of the Israeli military and security services. It originated in the 1940s from the then fledging Israel Defence Forces’ need for a formalised method of hand-to-hand combat.
Krav Maga (`Contact Combat’) was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld, the first defensive tactics instructor for the IDF and is continually refined as a result of the feedback from experiences of members of the IDF and security services in the field.
In the 1960s, the Ministry of Education began teaching a civilian version of Krav Maga in schools. The civilian form of the system has since migrated to all five continents, alongside the military and security syllabus, which is taught to police and military units world-wide
Krav Maga doesn’t specialise in standing-versus-groundwork, striking versus-locking/ throwing, empty-hand-versus-weapons, etc. Instead, it has the core elements of all these fighting methods incorporated into it, as the emphasis of Krav Maga is on pragmatic self-defence for the civilian and efficient defensive tactics for security and military professionals. So, apart from a core of empty-hand striking, grappling and ground-work it places heavy emphasis on defending against weapon threats and attacks, against oneself or a third party (for VIP Protection or hostage situations). These are trained in any position-front, side and rear – as well as standing, seated and grounded, and in all those contexts against multiple opponents.
Krav Maga students train in using common, everyday objects as weapons, such as folders, chairs, backpacks, garden implements, coffee mugs, pens, etc.. These are classified into categories such as ‘shield’, ‘small objects to distract’, ‘flexible’, ‘stick type’, etc. and the tactics and use of the objects in these categories is taught as part of the syllabus. Krav Maga teaches multiple-opponent defence as part of its syllabus, emphasises environmental training (field training) and contains many exercises and drills to put students under physical and psychological stress in order to acclimatise the student to the stressors of street self-defence.
